A blog where I post a mixture of photos that I have taken and find amusing, interesting, artistic, surprising or strange.

Friday, 20 May 2016

SAWFLY IN OUR GARDEN

Pterygophorus cinctus is a sawfly recorded in Australia. Sawfly is the common name for insects belonging to suborder Symphyta of the order Hymenoptera. Sawflies do not possess the distinctive thin waist of the other hymenopterans, nor do they possess a sting. Their name comes from the female's saw-like egg-laying tube, which she uses to make a slit in a plant leaf or stem, into which she lays her eggs. The adult Bottlebrush Sawfly has an orange and black banded body, with a wingspan of about 2cm. Males have feathery (pectinate) antennae.

In this case the sawfly was photographed on some dill seeds in our garden in our garden in Fairfield in suburban Melbourne.